June 10, 2019

Parents are overwhelmed with messaging and claims about how the latest “educational” toy or app is going to make their child smarter or more prepared for school. At the same time, accelerating scientific advances have demonstrated the critical importance of early brain and child development across the lifespan.

April 23, 2018

Roughly one in 10 women in the United States will experience depression. The consequences, however, may extend to their children, report researchers who found that a mother's depression can negatively affect a child's cognitive development up to the age of 16.

April 23, 2018

In March, more than 230 education and child advocacy leaders convened in Sarasota for a summit hosted by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to discuss how groups can more effectively help children by extending services to parents as well.

March 30, 2018

As a parent, you wish you could protect your kids from every disappointment, defeat, or scary challenge.

Although this isn’t possible, you can teach your children to be resilient.

March 30, 2018

Connection is as essential to us parents as it is to our children.

We all crave those close moments with our children that melt our hearts. Connection is as essential to us as it is to our children. When our relationship is strong, it's also sweet, so we receive as much as we give. That's what makes parenting worth all the sacrifices.

March 12, 2018

Fears about automation displacing workers around the world ranked high on the list of Things to Be Very Worried About at the World Economic Forum in January. “At the end of the day, we have to fire a lot of people,” said Ursula Burns, chairman of the supervisory board at telecom group VEON, and former CEO of Xerox—which, indeed, recently had to fire a lot of people.

March 12, 2018

A child’s first years of life are the most important when it comes to brain development, yet the majority of children in the U.S. miss out on an activity that plays a vital role in building reading and language skills.

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According to a national survey, only 42 percent of children ages 0 to 8 are being read aloud to every day; 30 percent are read aloud to for at least 15 minutes.

February 28, 2018

A recent study looked into the long-term effects of watching too much television as a toddler. Somewhat surprisingly, the impact could be measured in the children's dietary habits, weight, and behavior as teenagers.

February 27, 2018

Parents wondering how video games, athletic pursuits or sleeping habits may affect their kids’ brains may get some answers thanks to a massive effort underway at 21 institutions across the country.

February 27, 2018

Research has shown that play and learning go hand in hand. If the play is done outdoors, it opens a whole new world for them. Some schools in other states are even going to nature playgrounds that include logs and boulders to climb on and gardens with dirt to play in.

February 20, 2018

Study finds engaging young children in conversation is more important for brain development than “dumping words” on them.

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A landmark 1995 study found that children from higher-income families hear about 30 million more words during their first three years of life than children from lower-income families. This “30-million-word gap” correlates with significant differences in tests of vocabulary, language development, and reading comprehension.

February 20, 2018

A major Finnish research project is asking whether the physical effects of lifestyle choices of grandparents and parents, such as smoking and drinking, can be passed down directly to following generations.

February 14, 2018

Vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women could preprogram babies to grow into obese children and adults, according to a Keck School of Medicine of USC-led study.

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Researchers found that 6-year-olds born to mothers with very low vitamin D levels during their first trimester had bigger waists - about half an inch plumper on average - than peers whose mothers had enough vitamin D in early pregnancy. These kids also had 2 percent more body fat.

February 13, 2018

Iron is important to enable healthy physical and cognitive development in infants and children. Researchers recently examined the literature concerning the risks and benefits of iron supplementation in African children and the side effects of iron supplements.

February 13, 2018

New research with prairie voles by child development experts at UC Davis suggests that prenatal stress promotes developmental plasticity in babies, making them especially likely to benefit from good parenting as well as suffer from negligent care.

The interconnection between education and health is well established.

Take, for example, smoking. Smoking continues to be the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S. The highest percent of smoking is seen among persons with less than a high school or General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency diploma, and the lowest is among persons with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Did you know that if you keep looking at your mobile phone, it may harm your baby? Research shows that mobile phones can be stressful for babies and disturb the attachment between a parent and their child.

Children who sleep fewer hours per night or have greater alterations in rest patterns are more likely to have a higher BMI and waist circumference compared with children who have better sleep quality, according to findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Special Conference, Obesity and Cancer: Mechanisms Underlying Etiology and Outcomes.

Ambitious parents concerned that their children’s addiction to staring at screens may prevent them becoming the next Einstein now have the perfect solution: his toys.

January 25, 2018

Babies often amaze their parents when they seemingly learn new skills overnight — how to walk, for example. But their brains were probably prepping for those tasks long before their first steps occurred, according to researchers.

January 24, 2018

Children who experience abuse and neglect early in life are more likely to have problems in social relationships and underachieve academically as adults.

January 24, 2018

Preschools have a single, all-important mission: getting kids ready to learn. Students should emerge knowing their letters, numbers, and shapes, as well as a certain level of emotional awareness.

January 15, 2018

Parents and grandparents of children ages 2 months to 5 years will notice that their health care providers are using new methods to assess development.

January 16, 2018

A new study has found that children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) may have an easier time switching between tasks if they learn a second language.